I just got a chance to see this movie, and I have to tell
you, agreeing with Jack Bludis is usually a smart bet for me,
but I have to respectfully disagree with him whole-heartedly
on this one. I think this might have been the best movie I'll
see all year.
First: there's the visuals: the director of photography
deserves an Oscar. He gave us the look of 1959 Los Angeles
(and this goes for the costuming, the set dressing, etc.).
Overall the film had a terrific feel. It felt like they got
it right while I was watching it. It was 1959 Los Angeles to
me.
Second, the direction: nuanced, and deft, and focused. We
weren't hit over the head with the storyline and the
subplots, and we weren't left grasping, purblind, trying to
figure out "wha...???" when the lights came up, and the
credits rolled. The jumps back and forth between the scenes
in Reeves' life and the investigation of his death were
well-handled, with smooth transitions.
Lastly, the acting: Bob Hoskins was wonderfully restrained
(he's pretty notorious for chewing the scenery at levels that
an unrestrained Charles Laughton would have envied). What's
more, he really makes the most of his screen time. His
character wasn't just the studio head heavy. He wasn't just
the philandering husband who might have arranged the
murder-to-look-a-car-crash of his first wife. He wasn't just
the cuckolded/loving husband who dotes on a wife greiving
over the death of her younger paramour. He was all of those
things by turns. A brilliant performance all the more
remarkable for its subtlety. I agree whole-heartedly with the
statement made here previously that he was a great choice for
the role.
Diane Lane just gets better with age. She wasn't given much
to do with her part (I thought), but she does a good job with
what she's given.
Robin Tunney showed she's got chops as well as looks. Playing
Leonore Lemon, I believed she was every bit the hard-edged
50's Noo Yawk girl she was supposed to be.
Ben Affleck actually *acts* in this movie. He plays a
character, and that character is not "Ben Affleck" (which
means he has graduated past the "John Wayne School of Method
Acting"). He's understated, displaying Reeves' reportedly wry
sense of humor and near-tradmark smirk. It works. And it's
nice to see the guy stretching and trying to expanding his
repertoire.
The supporting players, right down to the operatives who work
for the Detective Agency that contracts out to the movie
studios for things including muscle, are good as well. When
the protagonist is rattling the (predictably) wrong cages,
and these guys are ordered to step on him, they do a great
job of showing that it *is* a job for them. Professional,
matter-of-fact, and just the slightest bit regretful that
they've got to do this to a former colleague.
And they do it mostly with action and body language (which is
what the best acting is), not with lines stuffed into their
mouths while they're unwinding the chain to whack him in the
head with.
All that said, this is Adrien Brody's movie. Period.
He inhabits the role of Louis Simo. I chose that word
carefully. This is a hard-boiled movie, and the story arc
with Simo's character reflects that. His masterful turn as
the seedy-down-at-his-heels-through-every-fault-of-his-own
P.I., his scenes with his wife (that gal from "Deadwood" and
"Men With Brooms," very good herself, although she did seem
to spend nearly every scene cleaning stuff of her couch. I
liked how they showed that she and he were having problems,
and she wasn't a stereotypical harridan, while still able to
show that there was tension between the two characters, and
with good reason), his kid, his former co-workers, his
clients, the reporters to whom he feeds juicy tidbits laced
with innuendo while trying to keep the question of Reeves'
death on the front pages (at first so he can milk the dead
actor's mother for all the money he can get from her, later
because, as one of the cops says to him. because he seems to
want to "get on the right side of somethi
ng for once"), and the cops, all reflect that. His
reasons for what he does at every point, every twist in the
plot, are believable, and I never found myself asking, "Why
the hell would do that?" with the resultant, "Yeaaaaaah,
riiiiiiiight...."
Brody can do more with a look than other actors can do with a
monologue. This movie doesn't have the stereotypical noir/hb
voice-over, and it doesn't really need one. You don't have to
wonder "what is he thinking" from scene to scene (because
there's no voice-over), because the story arc of Simo's past
unfolds and begins to intertwine with Reeves' (there are some
similarities, and some similar choices each character has to
make, and these lead to the conclusion of each the sublots
unfolding and coming together in that powerful, arresting
climax.
And Brody makes it work. He shows how trapped by a
combination of his own choices and by forces beyond his
control Simo is (and it compares interestingly with Reeves'
surprisingly similar predicament), and there's no need to
have voice come on and say: "Wow, isn't it amazing that these
guys got black-balled (after a fashion) in their chosen
professions, and how it rocked their worlds and changed their
lives?"
And in the end, that's what really made this movie for me. I
came away from it with the right combination of questions
answered and unanswered, and I've been mulling it over in the
two days since I went to see it, and have become even more
convinced that in this age of hit-you-over-the-head
entertainment, HOLLYWOODLAND is a skilled, ultimately
satisfying, vehicle for the sort of cautionary tale about
Southern California in general, and the entertaiment world
(and the excesses of fame) in particular, that Chandler's THE
LONG GOODBYE was when it was first published during the
mid-fifties.
And it doesn't have to hit you in the face with a chain to do
it.
Yout Mileage May Vary-
Brian
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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